Cueto pitches, Wood impressive

Goodyear Ballpark hasn’t been the Reds friend, yet. As the road team this time, Cincinnati dropped a 4-2 loss to the Indians but outhit Cleveland, 9-7. Cincinnati is 0-2 after two games vs. the Tribe.

“We just have to get some timely hits,” manager Dusty Baker said. “It’s OK. We played better.”

Starter Johnny Cueto’s line — he allowed four runs, two earned, on five hits with a walk and four strikeouts in two innings. Cueto was burned in the first when leadoff batter Michael Brantley reached on Joey Votto’s E3 toss to the bag. It led to two runs scoring.

In the bottom of the second inning, Cueto walked Austin Kearns with a 3-1 pitch before next batter Andy Marte smoked a first-pitch fastball for a two-run home run to left field.

Overall, Cueto was pleased with the afternoon.

“It went very well today. I was working the pitches,” he said.

Other items of note:

*Five Reds pitchers that followed Cueto did not allow any runs over the remaining six innings.

*Fifth starter candidate Travis Wood had a very nice first outing with two scoreless innings with one walk and one strikeout. In the fifth, Wood retired the side in order with two routine groundballs before he struck out a batter on three pitches.

“He knows what he’s doing,” Baker said. “He’ll cut the ball in on you. He’ll run it away from you. He has a pretty good changeup.”

*Mike Leake also had his first spring action and threw a perfect one inning with one strikeout that also impressed the manager.

*Todd Frazier appeared as the DH for two at-bats late in the game. He went 0-for-2, including being called out on strikes his first time up.

*The Reds agreed to one-year contracts with their 26 remaining unsigned players. All of them are the 0-3 year service time guys that have no leverage. One positive sign is that no one was renewed.

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